Special theme on privacy and the Internet of things

Editors’ note When we initially thought about running a special theme on the Internet of things, we were motivated; as many are e.g. [11, 9, 15, 10], by a concern with the threat to privacy that accompanies the widespread rollout of connected devices. Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission tasked with protecting consumers in the USA, seemed to us to sum the situation up generally: